Battlestar Galactica vs. Lost: How Endings Matter (or Don’t)

Battlestar Galactica and Lost were both series that I watched regularly, that I looked forward to during every off season, and that I often liked a lot. Both also had endings that were letdowns, that veered off into murky mysticism. But yet the Lost ending bothered me a lot more than the Galactica ending. While I didn’t like the very end of Galactica, I still look back at the many moments along the way I liked (and in fact started rewatching the series from the beginning soon after the final episode aired) whereas Lost’s ending left a bad taste in my mouth and diminished what had come before. I’ve been giving some thought to why that is so, and I’ve come to a few conclusions.

Both shows had characters I like and cared about, characters that usually seemed real. But on Lost, the story in which those characters were involved was all about the central mystery of the island. It’s what drove things week after week. So when we reached the end and they didn’t resolve much what had seemed so important through six seasons -- and what they did resolve seemed trite -- it reflected poorly on what came before. Our key focus for six seasons was for nothing. Galactica on the other hand was about far more than the central mystery or mysteries of the show: what was the Cylon plan; would they find Earth. It was about war and how it can drive good people to do bad things -- and in some cases turn reasonable people into monsters. It was about how we govern ourselves in the face of extreme circumstances, the balance between freedom and necessity, and the conflict between military and civilian authority. And like Lost, it looked at faith vs. reason, but I think it did so in a more logical and deeper fashion.

Both shows also had characters that changed, and in some cases had characters who we sometimes liked, sometimes didn’t. But in Galactica, I thought they changes grew out of the characters and their situation, and the reasons we grew to like or dislike them were real ones, not simply random. Lost did that with some characters, but with others, by the end, I’d lost interest. I started out liking Jack, then found him overbearing, and finally threw up my hands and quit caring since he seemed to be someone only doing what the story needed, not a real character who’d earned my caring about him. Why, for example, did he decide he had to go back to the island? Best I could figure is that the story needed him to go back. Likewise, with Kate, Locke, and most of the other main characters. In the end, of the main characters, only Sawyer and Hurley were characters I cared much about. (And unlike a number of people, I never changed my attitude toward Sawyer. I liked him from the start, since he was the only character on the island who did what I’d do: try to find all the books so he’d have something to read.) Contrast that with the character of Laura Roslin, who I early on didn’t like but who I grew to like a lot. The change in my attitude was due to the exploration of her character and her growth as a character, not simply because the character for whatever reason started acting differently.

Finally, in Galactica, all the major pieces seem to be there as part of the integral whole. I don’t look at any major plot line and become puzzled trying to understand why it was there. But on Lost, I still don’t see the point of the flash sideways (the alternate universe of the final season, which turns out to be a waiting room for the afterlife). Why did we need that? How did it fit in with the main story in any real way? Not to mention that, given the answer we’re finally given about it, why was it set up the way it was. Why were Sawyer and Miles partners? Why did Jack have a son? And so on. It all seemed random and unconnected.

Maybe in a few years I’ll go back and watch some Lost episodes again. I loved some of the more science fictional episodes like “The Constant.” But I doubt I’ll ever bother to take the time to go back through the whole series from beginning to end again, because it’ll still take me to the same place that I didn’t like.